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Maxine Gibson
Maxine "Max" Gibson was Terry McGinnis's friend, and later an invaluable ally in his life as the second Batman. History Early life Max did not have a happy childhood. Her parents split up when she was young, and Max and her older sister moved in with their mother. To make ends meet, Mrs. Gibson was on the road a lot, leaving Max to take care of herself from a young age. She missed a lot of attention and love, but grew stronger through it. , "Hooked Up" Model student Not deterred by her family situation, Max rose to become one of the smartest students at Hamilton Hill High School. She received a perfect score on the standardized GAT test and her class grades made her the lead candidate for class valedictorian. Also a computer genius, Max wrote a computer program to discover the new Batman's secret identity as a hobby. She narrowed it down to a basic physical description, plus the fact that he was somehow connected to the high school. Unfortunately for her, her achievements had drawn the anger of fellow student Carter Wilson, the class's second-highest achiever who was driven to be first by his uncaring mother, and who also led a secret life as "Terminal," the leader of a gang of Jokerz, venting his frustrations on the world. Using his gang, he tried to alter the records at the high school, and when that failed, to kill Max. After the first attempt on her life failed, Max adapted her identification program to find the Jokerz' leader, but a mistake in her programming led to the computer spitting out a list of names which included Terry's, but not Carter's. Deciding to take action, she sent a message to Terry that she knew "his secret," and ordered him to meet her. Terminal followed her and threatened to kill her, but Batman showed up after seeing her message and saved her. Terminal's true identity was revealed, and she realized that the Tomorrow Knight was none other than Terry. In private, she told Terry that she knew his secret, but promised not to tell anyone and offered to help him.Idem, "Hidden Agenda" Allies Max played an integral part in Batman's war on crime: when it came to crimefighting, she employed her considerable intelligence and skills at computer hacking and investigation to aid Terry, compensating for his lack of training as a detective. She was likewise invaluable at helping Terry maintain his "normal" life, including coming up with excuses for his long absences for Dana Tan, creating diversions that enabled him to slip away when necessary, keeping him updated on developments at school that he missed out on, or just helping him catch up on his schoolwork. Terry jokingly referred to her as his "Alfred" (after she quipped that she refused to be called his "Robin"). Aside from her intelligence, she was also valuable to him as a sympathetic friend with whom he could share confidences. Beneath her confident, even brassy, demeanor, Max had a craving for both affection and excitement that sometimes got the better of her cool head. At times she pressed Terry to let her take a more active role in his investigations; he was reluctant to involve her, but sometimes she stepped forward before he could stop her. This led to an unfortunate addiction to Spellbinder's love-filled virtual reality technology, while she was helping Terry investigate illicit gaming parlors. Another time, she was nearly killed by the assassin Curaré when she sneaked into her target's hotel room to look for clues. But she still proved her worth to Terry as a partner time and again, most notably when she tracked down, and then disarmed, a massive bomb hidden in a museum, while Terry was fighting Curare.Idem, "Final Cut" Over time, Terry trusted Max with full knowledge of his secret activities and she eventually became acquainted with Bruce Wayne. At first, Bruce was very resistant to the idea of her getting involved, even going so far as to have her arrested. Eventually, though, he came to accept her as Terry's friend and ally.Idem, "Where's Terry?" Along with Terry, she became acquainted with Zander, the sheltered leader-in-training of the terrorist organization Kobra. Having never before met a woman who challenged or defied him, Zander became intrigued by and smitten with Max after she beat him in a game of "Sentries of the Last Cosmos." Going against the wishes of his Kobra minders, he arranged for Max to be abducted and brought her aboard his organization's ship, revealing his plan to remake the earth as a home for spliced human-dinosaur hybrids, and asked her to be his queen. Of course, she refused. She escaped the ship with Terry before it exploded, with the help of Kairi Tanaga.Idem, "Curse of the Kobra" Powers and Abilities * Max has no metahuman abilities, but she possessed a genius-level intelligence, and considerable skills with computer hacking and investigation, as well as street-smarts. * Though she had no formal martial arts training, she was also scrappy in a fight and nearly fearless. Appearances * "Splicers" * "Hidden Agenda" * "Bloodsport" * "Once Burned" * "Hooked Up" * "Rats" * "Mind Games" * "Revenant" * "Babel" * "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot" * "Eyewitness" * "Final Cut" * "The Last Resort" * "Armory" * "The Eggbaby" * "Zeta" * "April Moon" * "Sentries of the Last Cosmos" * "Where's Terry?" * "Payback" * "Inqueling" * "Big Time" * "Out of the Past" * "Speak No Evil" * "Betrayal" * "Curse of the Kobra" * "Unmasked" }} Footnotes Gibson, Maxine Gibson, Maxine Category:Individuals with above average intelligence Category:A to Z